Liberian immigrant among new US citizens after naturalization ceremony in Georgia

Atlanta News First: Liberian immigrant among new US citizens after naturalization ceremony in Georgia 

There are 50 new American citizens after the naturalization ceremony.

Improving the historic Selma-to-Montgomery Trail

US Dept of Transportation: Improving the historic Selma-to-Montgomery Trail 

In Alabama, we funded a project to pave a major road and improve the historic Selma-to-Montgomery Trail, which will reconnect West Montgomery residents to opportunities. 

From 14 USCIS Questions in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pdf

11. On March 7, 1965, voting rights marchers were beaten at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama as they tried to march to Montgomery. Later, MLK and John Lewis led civil rights marchers from Selma to Montgomery after a U.S. District judge upheld the right of demonstrators to conduct an orderly march. 

  What are two rights of everyone living in the United States? (USCIS 100:51) 

 a) freedom of assembly 

 b) freedom to beat protestors 

 c) freedom to petition the government

 d) freedom to vote

This Term at Interior

US Dept of Interior: This Term at Interior

This Term at Interior: During the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of the Interior has made unprecedented progress for our shared lands, waters, wildlife and the communities they sustain. Together, we have taken bold action, in collaboration with Tribal Nations, states, territories, local communities, private landowners, fishers, outdoor enthusiasts, environmental justice advocates and other important partners across the nation.   

We asked Department leaders to reflect on just a few examples of how our work has improved the health and resilience of the American people.

In farewell address, Biden warns of concentration of power and wealth

VOA News: In farewell address, Biden warns of concentration of power and wealth

US president caps his decades-long political career and a 4-year term bookended by Donald Trump

2024-2025 MAE Citizenship Class 16

 

uscitizenpod: USCIS N-400 Part 12:45 The U.S. Constitution and Form of Government

Classroom:

• Pearson ELT USA Team: UPDATED Naturalization Speaking Test from Voices of Freedom by Bill Bliss.  pg 227-233
• Voices of Freedom: Ch 12: Citizens Rights and Responsibilities
• Preparing for the Oath:  Responsibilities (homework)
• 14 USCIS Questions in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  This quiz matches 14 USCIS civics questions with speeches and events from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who worked for equality for all Americans and for all those who thirst for peace and justice throughout the world mp3 and pdf
• A Quick Interview Based on the N-400r of Juah Sarwee from Fish Town, Liberia plus 10qs about US Geography and Symbols (2017) pdf  

Not Just Voting. Habits of Good Citizens. Tips from Diplomat Richard Haass

PBS: Not Just Voting. Habits of Good Citizens. Tips from Diplomat Richard Haass

Bestselling author and diplomat Richard Haass says there are 10 essential obligations of citizens that can help to heal a divided country and preserve American democracy. These habits are not just about voting.

Haass gives his 10 quick “Haass Takes” here, based on responsibilities outlined in his book, "The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens,” which serves as a guide for all American citizens who want to be more deeply engaged in creating a healthy and thriving democracy. As he argues in his book, “We get the government and the country we deserve. Getting the one we need, however, is up to us.” 

Do you have what it takes to be a good citizen? The ten obligations are: 

• Be Informed 
• Get Involved 
• Stay Open to Compromise 
• Remain Civil 
• Reject Violence 
• Value Norms 
• Promote the Common Good 
• Respect Government Service 
• Teach Civics 
• Put Country First 

Haass calls on Americans to reimagine citizenship by taking action and participating in democracy. In his final “Haass Take” about putting country first, he lifts up the words that President John F. Kennedy shared in his inaugural address in 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”  

Haass knows a thing or two about citizenship and democracy - he served under four U.S. presidents, both Democrats and Republicans; he served as president of the Council on Foreign Relations from July 2003 to June 2023; and prior to that, he was the director of policy planning for the US Department of State as well as an advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George W. Bush administration. 

Watch the Citizens Guide to Preserving Democracy Playlist

A Citizens Guide to Preserving Democracy series description:   

American democracy is under threat. Do you have what it takes to be a good citizen? Join Preserving Democracy as we dig into the ten habits of good citizens in a new digital series, “A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy.” Explore real-life examples of Americans who are striving to build a healthier democracy and who embody the spirit of a more informed and engaged citizenry… one person at a time.    

Based on “The Bill of Obligations: Ten Habits of Good Citizens,” by author and diplomat Richard Haass and the feature-length PBS documentary, A Citizen's Guide to Preserving Democracy from The WNET Group’s Preserving Democracy initiative.   

 

Now streaming at pbs.org/preservingdemocracy 

A Citizen's Guide to Preserving Democracy

Thirteen: A Citizen's Guide to Preserving Democracy | Full Documentary on PBS | Thirteen/On the Brink playlist

American democracy is under threat. Do you have what it takes to be a good citizen? Preserving Democracy digs into the 10 habits of good citizens in the series, A Citizen’s Guide to Preserving Democracy. Explore real-life examples of Americans who are striving to build a healthier democracy and who embody the spirit of a more informed and engaged citizenry… one person at a time.  Based on Richard Haass’ best-selling book “The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens.”

The Life and Legacy of Jimmy Carter

VOA News: The Inside Story | The Life and Legacy of Jimmy Carter 

Join us this week on The Inside Story as we honor the remarkable life and legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100. From his humble beginnings to his impactful presidency and tireless humanitarian work, we reflect on the life of a leader dedicated to peace and service. That's this week on The Inside Story: The Life and Legacy of Jimmy Carter.

Rest in Power, Rest in Peace: President Jimmy Carter

 

 

VOA News: 39th US President Jimmy Carter laid to rest in his Georgia hometown

Carter died last week at 100 

Washington Post: Visitors pay their respects to Carter 

As former president Jimmy Carter lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 7, hundreds of visitors came to honor his legacy as a role model and humanitarian. 

Time: In Memoriam Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old.

POP Quiz:

USCIS 100:10.  What is freedom of religion?

USCIS 100:15.  Who is in charge of the executive branch?

USCIS 100:26.  We elect a President for how many years?

USCIS 100:28.  What is the name of the President of the United States now?*

USCIS 100:32.  Who is the Commander in Chief of the military?

USCIS 100:41.   Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government.  What is one power of the federal government?

USCIS 100:43.  Who is the Governor of your state now?

USCIS 100:55.  What are two ways that Americans can participate in their democracy?

USCIS 100:84.  What movement tried to end racial discrimination?

USCIS 100:94.  What is the capital of the United States?*

2024-2025 MAE Citizenship Class 15

 

uscitizenpod: USCIS N-400 Part 12:45 The U.S. Constitution and Form of Government

Classroom:

• Pearson ELT USA Team: UPDATED Naturalization Speaking Test from Voices of Freedom by Bill Bliss.  pg 227-233
• Voices of Freedom: Ch 12: Citizens Rights and Responsibilities
• Preparing for the Oath:  Responsibilities (homework)
• American History and Integrated Civics Questions (USCIS 100:58-100) for the Naturalization Test

Know Your Rights Training and "I Speak" Resources

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An example of a "Know Your Rights" Red Card and "I Speak" Language Identification Card

During the CATESOL 2024 Adult-Level Rap, participants expressed interest in Know Your Your Rights (KYR) cards and training. I encourage State TESOL International Association and COABE  affiliates as well school districts and consortiums to host a KYR training event or sharing "I Speak" a minority language cards (see below). Invite a immigrant legal service group or police/sheriff outreach representative to speak to your students.  Thanks to ILRC.org for everything that you do!

ILRC: Immigration Know Your Rights and Advocate Training
January 16, 2025
Two Sessions Available: Spanish and English
Are you an advocate wanting to train others on their rights when they encounter ICE? Are you a community member wanting to know what your rights are and how you can assert them in different settings? In this webinar we will first provide a Know Your Rights (KYR) overview, covering the rights that all individuals have, regardless of status, and what they can do to proactively prepare and protect themselves and their families. The second half of the webinar will outline how advocates can plan and conduct their own KYR training to help spread the word. This training does not offer MCLE credits.

ILRC is offering two sessions of this training on January 16th. The first session will be in Spanish, and the second session will be in English. Please use the links below to register. 

• January 16, 2025 10:00 am - 11:00 am Pacific Standard Time Online via Zoom Language: Spanish
  
• Register: https://pardot.ilrc.org/e/806863/9wSg6tR06eO5I6XQ--registration/q7jm7/708714573/h/8nr0NjlR6Cn-UaM6rt4ktCydANzKIxdnbyzvMW45vKs
• January 16, 2025 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Pacific Standard Time Online via Zoom Language: English
• Register: https://pardot.ilrc.org/e/806863/kqQfCPAXFwvy-E8g--registration/q7jmb/708714573/h/8nr0NjlR6Cn-UaM6rt4ktCydANzKIxdnbyzvMW45vKs

More Know Your Rights / I Speak resources

• https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards 
• https://www.ilrc.org/sites/default/files/resources/red_cards-how_to-culture_strike_illustrated_0.pdf
• https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/immigrants-rights
• https://www.atask.org/resources/help-cards/ 
• https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Indigent%20Languages%20Sticker.pdf
• https://www.cliniclegal.org/resources/protecting-your-community/know-your-rights/know-your-rights-card
• https://www.fns.usda.gov/civil-rights/ispeak
• https://iamerica.org/know-your-rights/
• https://iibayarea.org/services/know-your-rights/
• https://www.justdigit.org/wallet-cards/
• https://www.lep.gov/translation
• https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Know-Your-Rights-No-Matter-Who-Is-President-2024.pdf
• https://www.nyic.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Website-English-Comic-reduced-file.pdf
• https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Example-of-Know-Your-Rights-wallet-card_fig1_265179572
• https://refugees.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Know-Your-Rights_final.pdf

A Quick Update of New Resources for U.S. Citizenship Prep

Created with MS Image Designer 01/06/2025

A quick update of new resources for U.S. Citizenship prep plus directions on how to print out USCIS One Nation, One People.  

Dollar General Grant page

Looking for Adult Ed program funding? The Dollar General Grant is one of the easiest grants to get for small programs.

ESL Video: Study for the US Citizenship Civics Test page

ESL Video looking for teachers/classes to beta test their new USCIS Officer Chattybot.  Contact Ryan Detwiler ryandetwiler@eslvideo.com more class codes.  Mega congrats to ESL Video for their 12-part series based on the USCIS One Nation, One People textbook.

LINCS: Top 10 U.S. Citizenship Preparation Resources for 2025 post

List of citizenship resources for 2025.

USA Learns: Access America Unit 5: Settling In 5.2 Rights and Responsibilities website

USA Learns Access completed a course update Fall 2024, an awesome intro to EL Civics topics.  They built out Unit 5.2 to include sections about becoming a Citizenship and immigration which includes activities for the videos below.  Look for updates to USA Learn’s Citizenship course in 2025.  To make suggestions or comments, contact help@usalearns.org.

• Becoming a U.S. Citizen
• Getting Help – Citizenship

USCIS Tech Talks: Supporting our Valued Stakeholders (Dec 10, 2024) video

During this engagement, on December 10, 2024, USCIS presented on the use of an Online Access Code by applicants and legal representatives, updating legal representatives, including filing a stand-alone form G-28, in online accounts.

USCIS Office of Citizenship ALL DAY Teach Training Sessions 2025 page

Coming soon to a city near you, the USCIS Office of Citizenship Training Team! 

uscitizenpod: Winter Holidays Citizenship Quiz 2024   video | PDF | MP3   

Include religious, secular, and civic holidays.

uscitizenpod: USCIS One Nation, One People PRINTING DIRECTIONS

Note: If you want the pdf already reformatted, click https://bit.ly/1n1px

Create main text

1. Download pdf from https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/brochures/OOC_M-1175_CivicsTextbook_8.5x11_V7_RGB_English_508.pdf
2.  Open pdd in Adobe Acrobat
3. File > Print. Printer: Adobe PDF
4.  Pages to Print > Pages: 3 to 44
5. Page Scaling: Tile Large Pages
6. Tile Scale: 100% Overlap: 0 in.
7. Orientation: Portrait
8. OK to create the PDF. (another pop-up will open--click the prompt--I saved the new file as "1n1p")

With this method, you do not have to manually reorder the pages.

Add Cover and Back

A. Open the Original PDF

1. Tool > Organize Pages > check Extract as Separate File > Extract (save as Cover)
2. Tool > Organize Pages >check Extract as Separate File > Extract (save as Back)

B. Open the Newly-created PDF

1. Tools > Organize Pages > check Insert File > Select Cover > Click open
2. Insert Pages Pop-up: Location > Before > First > Ok
3. Tools > Organize Pages > check Insert File > Select Back > Click open
4. Insert Pages Pop-up: Location > After > Last > Ok

100 new citizens for Jimmy Carter's 100th

 

Fox 5 Atlanta: 100 new citizens for Jimmy Carter's 100th

Former President Jimmy Carter's 100th birthday is a milestone for a number of reasons. For one, 100 people became U.S. citizens on his birthday in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Carter is also the only president to reach a centennial.

Also watch:

USA Today: Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at hometown church

WMAZ13: Jimmy Carter's pastor shares how Carter is still making a difference at 100 years old

Jimmy Carter

 

PBS American Experience: Jimmy Carter (full documentary)

Jimmy Carter's story is one of the greatest dramas in American politics. In 1980, he was overwhelmingly voted out of office in a humiliating defeat. But over the subsequent two decades, he became one of the most admired statesmen and humanitarians in America and the world. 

Through interviews with the people who knew him best, JIMMY CARTER traces his rapid ascent in politics, dramatic fall from grace and unexpected resurrection, including Carter family home movies and a rare film sequence of Carter's final hours in the Oval Office, when he and his advisors waited in vain for the release of the Americans who had been held hostage in Tehran for 444 days.

Top 10 U.S. Citizenship Preparation Resources for 2025

LINCS: Top 10 U.S. Citizenship Preparation Resources for 2025

Get ready to teach U.S. Citizenship Preparation and support adult students' goal to naturalize in 2025.  Add you resources below!

USCIS: Factsheet Form N-400, Application for Naturalization Filing Fees outlines the changes in fees, eligibility for fee waivers, and reduced fees for Form N-400, Application for Naturalization (2024).  For more info, see the LINCS 12/13/2024 USCIS Fees Webinar Follow Up post.

USCIS: One Nation, One People: The USCIS Civics Test Textbook and Color Me Civics: U.S. Landmarks and Symbols Coloring Book (English and Spanish) support applicants and their families preparing for the civics test.  For more info, see the LINCS 10/21/2024 One Nation Follow Up post.

ESL Video: Study for the US Citizenship Civics Test.  12 short videos based on One Nation, One People. Each video is paired with a multiple-choice listening quiz to check understanding.  Also check out the Civics Speaking Test with AI with USCIS Officer Chattybot.  

ILRC: New N-400 Annotated Version Explains the questions, why they are asked, how to answer them, and which ones may require help from experienced attorneys or Department of Justice-accredited representatives.

Justice.gov: EOIR Recognized Organizations and Accredited Representatives Roster by State and City List of organizations and representatives accredited to practice immigration law and represent petitioners in U.S. Immigration Court.  Updated monthly.

Literacy Volunteers Charlottesville / Albemarle: English for the Interview Video Playlist.  Twenty-seven videos focused on the entire N-400 (2024).

New Readers Press: Tricky vocabulary in Part 9 of the N-400 Application complements “Citizenship: Passing the Test Ready for the Interview Student Book 4th Edition” by Lynn Weintraub AND ProLiteracy’s Citizenship Collection of free online activities.

Pearson ELT USA Team: UPDATED Naturalization Speaking Test from Voices of Freedom by Bill Bliss.  

Preparing for the Oath: videos and activities for each one of the 2008 USCIS History and Civics Test.  Pair with the new One Nation, One People textbook!

uscitizenpod: N-400 Scripts based on the N-400 (2024). Ten progressive scripts of increasing difficulty for Citizenship and English Language Learners to help them prepare for their naturalization interviews.  The pdfs are fillable (to encourage digital literacy and support distance learning).   Additionally, every effort has been made to make the pdfs accessible to people of all abilities.  More scripts soon!

Upcoming: updated citizenship content and resources for Cambridge Ventures Arcade Citizenship, USA Learns Citizenship, USA Hello Citizenship (available in multiple languages).

USCIS Tech Talks: Supporting our Valued Stakeholders

USCIS Tech Talks: Supporting our Valued Stakeholders (Dec 10, 2024) 

During this engagement, on December 10, 2024, USCIS presented on the use of an Online Access Code by applicants and legal representatives, updating legal representatives, including filing a stand-alone form G-28, in online accounts.

New Year, New Citizen!

New Year's Day

• A Citizenship Quiz for New Year’s Day (2015/2016) mp3 / pdf
• Light Up 2022: New Year, New US Citizen! (2022) video
• New Year, New US Citizen (2018) audiogram
• New Year, New Citizen with Dr. Patricia Hernandez (2021) video
• New Year, New Citizenship Interview with Teacher Lisa Lau (2013) video
• wh.gov: A New Year's Message from President Biden (2022) video
• VOA Learning English: Words and Their Stories: What Does 'Auld Lang Syne' Mean? (New Year's Eve song) (2019)